Armed police have flooded London's streets as the terror threat level was raised to critical amid fears the Parsons Green bomber could strike again, Theresa May announced tonight.

The introduction of Operation Temperer will see soldiers replacing police at key sites including nuclear power plants to free up extra armed officers for regular patrols.

Scotland Yard said it is making 'excellent' progress in hunting the suspected terrorist who set off a crude bucket bomb on a packed commuter train by Parsons Green tube station in west London at 8.20am.

Mrs May said in a statement from Number 10: 'The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has now decided to raise the national threat level from severe to critical - this means their assessment is that a further attack may be imminent.'

Minutes later Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley suggested there might have been more than one person involved, stating that police were 'chasing down suspects'.

Police identified the suspected terrorist using CCTV footage but the investigation has been overshadowed by an extraordinary diplomatic row triggered by Donald Trump

The US President tweeted just hours after the rush hour blast that police had the attacker 'in their sights' and should have been 'more proactive' in catching 'the loser'.

Scotland Yard hit back and said Mr Trump's comments were 'pure speculation' while senior officers refused to name the suspect.

The President later rowed back on his controversial comments by posting another tweet saying, ‘our hearts and prayers go out to the people of London’.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack tonight, saying its 'soldiers' had 'planted IEDs'.

It was the middle of rush hour when the crude bucket bomb - which had a timer - went off at 8.20am inside a tube train packed with commuters, including children and a pregnant woman.

The device was hidden in a builder's bucket and could have killed dozens but failed to properly detonate and sent a 'wall of fire' through the carriage at Parsons Green, injuring at least 29 people.

Terrified passengers were left covered in blood with scorched hands, legs, faces and hair – others suffered crush injuries during a stampede as they 'ran for their lives' over fears the
'train would blow up'.

London Ambulance took 19 patients to hospitals, while the others went in themselves. The four hospitals dealing with patients were Imperial, Chelsea and Westminster, Guy's and St Thomas' and St George's.

Officers are tonight hunting for the bomber across London amid claims he could be armed and might have planted other explosive devices.

An officer at the scene told MailOnline: 'We believe there is a second bomb - there is a man with knives on the loose.'

In a pre-recorded television statement released around 8.30pm, May said military personnel would replace police officers 'on guard duties at certain protected sites which are not accessible to the public'.

She said: 'The public will see more armed police on the transport network and on our streets, providing extra protection.
'This is a proportionate and sensible step which will provide extra reassurance and protection while the investigation progresses.'

Speaking moments afterwards, Assistant Commissioner Mike Rowley said: 'We are making excellent progress at the moment as we pursue our lines of inquiry to identify, locate and arrest those responsible.

'We have hundreds of police officers trawling through CCTV footage, detectives have spoken to tens of witnesses and we have taken a large number of calls to the hotline... from members of the public.
'Indeed members of the public have sent in so far 77 images and videos of the scene which they have sent in to our appeal website and these are now being assessed for evidential value.'

Mr Rowley said he was only aware of one device, and the remnants of that device are being examined by experts.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan told LBC radio 'there is a manhunt under way as we speak' and there have been no arrests. Mr Khan was later criticisd for using a TV interview to score political points about police cuts.

He said the events backed up his argument that the Metropolitan Police needed more money. But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: 'I would've thought Sadiq Khan would want to keep politics out of the terror attack'.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack this evening through its Amaq News Agency, saying its 'soldiers planted IEDs'. However, the group has often made false claims in the past.
Photographs show what experts believe is an 'unsophisticated' bomb in a flaming white bucket inside a Lidl freezer bag with Christmas lights protruding from the top - a type of fuse encouraged by ISIS in its online manuals.

Donald Trump tweeted just hours after the rush hour blast that police had the attacker 'in their sights' and should have been 'more proactive' in catching 'the loser'.
Scotland Yard hit back and said Mr Trump's comments were 'pure speculation' while senior officers refused to name the suspect.

Mrs May also hit out at the President's tweet, calling it 'unhelpful', and has this evening discussed the intelligence sharing between the two countries with the President in a telephone call.

Witnesses to the explosion said there was a loud 'bang', a flash and then a ball of flame engulfed surrounding passengers on the 'packed' District Line train.

Luke Warsmey said: 'The explosion was like a large match going off at the end of the carriage. People just started sprinting. It was every man for himself when that happened. The burn victims had severe leg injuries.

'It was a very busy commuter train, young and old, school children going to their schools. I saw was nannies trying to look for kids, because of the rush of people just taking five and six year olds away from them and they were trying to look for them.

'There were lots of injuries from people being trampled on and everyone who had been close to it had the same burns to their head.'
Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergencies committee this afternoon to discuss the terrorist attack.

Mrs May later appealed to any members of the public with images of the incident to pass them to the police.
Armed Police, paramedics and firefighters were all said to be at the west London station within five minutes of the explosion.

A 100 yard cordon was erected around the station and a police helicopter was also overhead.

The Met confirmed it was a terrorist attack around 40 minutes later.
Scotland Yard said the area surrounding Parsons Green Tube station has been evacuated so specialist officers could 'secure the remnants of the improvised device and ensure it is stable'.

In the aftermath armed police swooped from the SO-15 counter-terrorism unit performed a hard-stop on a bus in nearby Chelsea Bridge Road. The call was linked to the terror attack but nothing suspicious was found on board.

Emma Stevie, 27, described a 'human stampede' after the bomb went off. She said: 'I heard lots of screams and people saying “run, run”. We got out and then there was a human stampede, down the stairs.

'There were people lying underneath getting crushed, a big human pile-on. I wedged myself in next to a railing. I put myself in the foetal position. I kept thinking, “I'll be ok, I'll be ok”.

'There was a pregnant woman underneath me and I was trying really hard not to crush her.'
Richard Aylmer-Hall told Sky News: 'There were a few crush injuries on the stairs. People got squashed and crushed going down the stairs. Police evacuated everyone from the scene pretty quickly.

'There was screaming, pushing and shoving - it was a like there was a terrorist on the loose with a gun or something - lots of people were in tears. When it was all over lots of people were being comforted and looked after. It was total chaotic panic.
'A lady who had been on the same carriage as the device described it going off - a puff of smoke and flames coming out of it.'

Couple Lucy, 24 and Fabin, 29, were on their way to work when the explosion happened.
Lucy, who works in PR, said: 'We just heard screaming and sprinting, there was a stampede on the stairs and people were falling over, there was a schoolboy being lifted up after he had fallen down, he was in his school uniform, he must have been about ten, he was crying and distressed.'
Fulham fitness instructor Niyi Shokunbi, 24, was in the next carriage the moment the bomb went off.
He told MailOnline: 'I have never seen anything like it was like something out of a film. I thought it was an acid attack. It happened like bang within ten seconds, I just wanted to run.

'I went towards the carriage where the bomb went off a woman said you don't want to go in there. I saw a little boy with scratches on his face crying for his brother. A woman was bleeding. Everyone was running. I've never seen anything like it.'

People suffered burns from the explosion and others were hurt in the crush.
Rob Partinton, 24, from Harrow told MailOnline: 'We were literally about two minutes from Parsons Green when the train suddenly stopped.

'I saw people running on the track opposite direction towards Fulham Broadway, I could hear no screams but a lot of people running. We've been held at the station for the last half an hour.

It's pretty busy, a lot of police around and police dogs.'
Another witness, Sham, said he saw a man with blood all over his face. 'There were loads of people crying and shaking,' he told Five Live.

'There were a lot of people limping and covered in blood. One guy I saw, his face was covered in blood - I've never seen anything like it.'

At the scene dozens of police and ambulances have continued to be called into the cordoned area. It is not known at this stage how many people are injured.
Specialist armed anti-terror units also swamped the area.
Chris Wildish, who was on the train, said he saw a 'device' in the last carriage.

'It was a white bucket, a builder's bucket, in a white Aldi bag or Lidl bag,' he told 5live.
'Flames were still coming out of it when I saw it and had a lot of wires hanging out of it'.
Sylvain Pennec, a software developer from Southfields, was around 10 metres from the source of the explosion when fire filled the carriage.

'I heard a boom and when I looked there were flames all around,' he said. 'People started to run but we were lucky to be stopping at Parsons Green as the door started to open.'
He described the scene of panic as commuters struggled to escape the carriage, 'collapsing and pushing' each other.
Mr Pennec stayed behind to take a closer look at what he believed was the source of the explosion.

'It looked like a bucket of mayonnaise,' he said. 'I'm not sure if it was a chemical reaction or something else, but it looked homemade. I'm not an expert though.'
Passengers on the train behind the affected Tube witnessed terrified passengers sprinting away up the tracks.

They were then held in their train for over an hour before being evacuated on to the tracks themselves.
Nicole Linnell, 29, who works for a fashion label, said: 'We saw people running down the tracks. About 30 or 40 people.

'They were running down the tracks outside our train.
'It was absolutely terrifying. Running on the tracks is the last thing you want to do so we were like 'What's going on?'

'After about an hour we were evacuated off the train on to the tracks. About 10 to 15 people at a time.'
Melanie Heyside had been at a gym nearby and intended to get on a District Line train to go to work.

She told Sky News: 'I just was about to open the doors to leave the studio and then all of a sudden Swat cars completely stormed and blocked the street and police jumped out with their armour and were telling people to 'move, to move'.
'So I was inside with a group of other people and we weren't really sure what to do.'

She said they were told to leave the area, which she added was populated by schoolchildren and others going to work, as quickly as possible.
Lady Margaret's School, next to Parson's Green tube station, put out an alert to concerned parents to say all children are okay and there are no absences.

0
comments. Leave a comment below.:

Post a Comment

Spam and abuse will not be published. You can use some HTML tags in your comments.

SEARCH

SUBSCRIBE

FOLLOWERS

MISSION STATEMENT

It is our position that shariah law imposes second class status on women and is incompatible with the standards of liberal Western societies and the basic principles of human rights that include equality under the law and the protection of individual freedoms. The shariah code mandates the complete authority of men over women, including the control of their movement, education, marital options, clothing, bodies, place of residence and all other aspects of their existence. Further, it calls for the beating, punishment, and murder of women who don’t comply with shariah requirements.
In our efforts to stem the encroachment of shariah in the West, we are focusing on the following objectives:

Education of the American public about the inherent human rights violations and the attempt to undermine or replace U.S. law and American statutes with Islamic shariah

Alerting policy makers and legislators to potential human rights and equal rights violations and working toward the development of possible remedies and legal actions

Building coalitions with like-minded organizations to develop policy initiatives and interventions for victims of shariah.

IMPORTANT TERMS

Shariah: an all-encompassing and in-transmutable system of Islamic jurisprudence, found in the Koran and the Sunnah, that covers all aspect of life, including daily routines, hygiene, familial roles and responsibilities, social order and conduct, directives on relationships with Muslims and non-Muslims, religious obligations, financial dealings and many other facets of living.

Ird: the sexual purity of a woman that confers honor to her husband, family and community. Ird is based on the traditional standards of behavior set forth in the shariah code and includes subservience to male relatives, modest dress which could include veiling and the covering of the body, and restricted movement outside of the home. The loss of a woman’s ird confers shame upon her family and can result in ostracism by the community, economic damage, political consequences and the loss of self esteem.

Zina: the Koranic word for sexual relations outside of marriage. Under shariah law, Zina is punished by lashings, imprisonment or stoning to death.

FGM: female genital mutilation refers to the partial or complete removal of the female genitalia for religious and cultural reasons. It is practiced to preserve a female’s chastity and dampen her sexual desire. FGM is permitted in the Koran but required by the Shafi’i, one of the four schools of shariah law within Sunni Islam.

Honor Killing: a murder, usually of a female, committed to restore the social and political standing of a family or community when it is believed that the victim has violated traditional behavioral expectations. Such violations can include improper covering of the body, appearing in public without a male relative chaperone, talking to an unrelated male, or exhibiting independence in thought and action. An honor killing can also be based on hearsay or gossip that is perceived as damaging to a woman’s relatives.

Forced Marriage: a marriage that is conducted without the consent of one or both parties in which duress is a factor. Such duress can include violence or physical intimidation, psychological abuse, blackmailing, kidnapping, or threats of imprisonment or institutional confinement.

SLAVERY IN ISLAM

Islam permits the taking of slaves as “booty” or as a reward for waging jihad. Slavery became a Muslim tradition at the time that Mohammed moved to Medina and amassed sufficient power for the enslavement of non-Muslims.
Slavery is an accepted part of Islamic society and is never viewed in a negative way in the Koran, Sira or Hadith. In fact, it is a God-given right for Muslims to have slaves.
[6:7] Allah has given more of His gifts of material things to some rather than others. In the same manner, those who have more do not give an equal share to their slaves so that they would share equally. Would they then deny the favors of Allah.

Although Islam has sustained slavery for 1400 years, a Muslim may never be enslaved. Only non-believers or kafirs may be enslaved and may be eligible for freedom upon conversion to Islam at the discretion of the slave owner. Slavery is viewed as a moral good in Islam as it transforms a kafir into a believer.

Slaves have no means for legal action in Islam and their rights are based solely on the good will of their master. If a slave flees his master, this is view as a sin against Allah.

Slaves have few civil or legal rights.

The following are rules pertaining to slavery from the Shariah:

1) Muslim men may have sex with female slaves at any time and it is not possible to “rape” a slave.

2) Slaves have the same status as animals and it is permissible to whip them.

3) No Muslim can be put to death for murdering a slave.

4) A slave’s testimony is inadmissible in court.

5) Slaves can be forced to marry whomever their master chooses and may not choose their marriage mate.

6) Christians and Jews who do not pay the jizya or protection tax can be enslaved.

In his book, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters, historian Robert Davis estimates that North African Muslims abducted and enslaved more than 1 million white Christian Europeans from the coastal towns from Sicily to Cornwall between 1530 and 1780. Muslim slavers also seized people from Britain, Ireland, Iceland and even American seaman on ships in the Atlantic.

In a recent case of Muslim slavery in the United States, Sarah Khonaizan and her husband Homaidan Al-Turki were arrested for forced labor, sexual abuse and harboring an alien for enslaving an Indonesian housekeeper in their home in Colorado.
The couple reportedly brought the housekeeper to Colorado from Saudi Arabia to care for their five children and to cook and clean for the family. The Indonesian woman slept on the basement floor, was paid less than $2 per day and was the victim of rape.
Al-Turki and his defense attorney complained that they were being persecuted for their beliefs and stated, "The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution."
Al-Turki received letters of support from the local Muslim community and from his academic colleagues at the University of Colorado.
This case continues to arouse strong feelings in Saudi Arabia where there is great sympathy and support for Al-Turki.
On March 26, 2008, a high level Saudi official brought up the case in a meeting with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. He urged Americans to review the case and mentioned the strong support for Al-Turki in Saudi Arabia.

RELIGION OF PEACE

IMPORTANT NOTE

Click on the title of each story in order to go to the original news story. Women Against Shariah does not claim copyright on any of the stories. This site should be considered a repository of news stories relating to Islamic matters. We aim to put all relevant news on this site so our viewers can locate these important stories in one place. Thank you.

ABOUT US

The mission of Women Against Shariah is to prevent and outlaw the imposition of shariah law in the United States for both Muslim and American women as either a parallel legal system or a replacement for existing laws. Additionally, we hope to empower women worldwide to resist shariah.